Kuriositas

Skywhale Rises Over Australia

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:47:00 +0000

The Australian state of Canberra is 100 years old this year. As part of the on-going celebrations the Skywhale – a 34 meter long hot balloon was commissioned to symbolize… well, a lot of Canberrans aren’t exactly sure what. Skywhale has hardly gotten off the ground before she is the center of very divided opinion.

Image Credit Flickr User Spelio

Image Credit Flickr User Joccoaa

Image Credit Flicrk User Sarah Pisani

Patricia Piccinini, the artist, designed Skywhale three years ago and it has this week come to life in the Australian skies. She conceptualized a creature which left the ocean and became a mammal. Then, unlike the whale which returned to the sea, the Skywhale took to the air instead. This idea of a different evolutionary path reflects the city of Canberra which has made every effort to blend in with its natural environs. The natural and artificial come together.

Image Credit Flickr User richardcnorman
On paper the idea might sound a little obscure but the artist, who normally likes to backdrop her work with a complete history, is this time being deliberately vague so that people can make one up themselves. What isn’t hazy is the price of the project which came in at AU$300,000 (US$pretty much the same).

Image Credit Flickr User ArronMaras
Many Canberrans have taken to Skywhale immediately (as I must confess, have I). A number simply don’t get the symbolism – and they could have a point. Others yet see the ten large udders as something of a step too far. I just adore the benign look on Skywhale’s face – a gentle giant taking in her surroundings, her own sense of curiosity as much a source of amusement as the furor she has created.

Image Credit Flickr User Spelio
Giant is hardly the word for her - she is 34 meters long and 23 meters high. That is at least twice as big as your average hot-air balloon. She is also a heavy Sheila, weighing in at half a tonne. Her creation used more than 3.5km of fabric. It took a team of 16 people seven months and more than 3.3 million stitches to design and make Skywhale.

Image Credit Flickr User Sarah Pisani

Image Credit Flickr User richardcnorman
She’s built for travel and as such Skywhale will be floating gracefully above the skies of Canberra for the next six months. The Centenary of Canberra Committee also hope that she will visit the other Australian states as part of the celebrations. Who can say where Skywhale's travels will take her?

Image Credit Flickr User Spelio

Acknowledgements
Kuriositas would like to thank Flickr Users Joccoaa Australian Photographer (official website here), Sarah Pisani and richardcnorman for their kind permission to use their photographs. Please visit their Flickr Photostreams by clicking on the links. All copyright is reserved by the photographers and still belongs wholly with the photographers.

First Image Credit Flickr User Walt74

(S)he's Right Behind Me, Isn't (S)he?

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:23:00 +0000

This has happened to a lot of people. It may well have happened to you. It has certainly happened to me. If you are an innocent here, then take this great mashup by Plot Point Productions as a piece of visual advice: never badmouth someone with your back to the door through which they may enter. It doesn’t have to be a door, either, as you will see.

This is a great collection of those moments when someone says something about someone else and that person is right behind them. It takes in a number of films: Miss Congeniality, City Slickers and Goldeneye to name but a few. TV shows are also well represented, with Supernatural, Justice League and Crossing Jordan among others. What is that German word again? Ah yes, schadenfreude...

Worlds Apart

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:15:00 +0000

A young family live on a small farm in central California. Although they have only a single child his imagination and the love of a good teddy bear keeps him from feeling any loneliness. Their life is a good one until a global environmental catastrophe means that everything will change. Many years later their homestead receives some extra-terrestrial visitors…

Worlds Apart was created by a very capable and motivated group of Cogswell Polytechnical College students (which is based in California where part of Worlds Apart is set). State-of-the-art software and studio techniques were employed in the making of this animated tour de force.

This is an exceptional short film with production values rarely seen at undergraduate level. It was written, produced, and directed by Michael Zachary Huber.

HIV: The Musical – Starring Martin Freeman

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:15:00 +0000

If you are a fan of Martin Freeman at his most deadpan and droll then settle back for you are in for a treat.

Here he plays a struggling writer who has finished his play about people in the Sudan living with HIV and is now looking for a producer. He finds one but before very long his earnest and intense work has been transformed in to a frivolous, über-camp West End musical.

HIV: The Musical also stars Julian Barratt as the monstrous Myles, every aspiring writer’s nightmare. It was written and directed by Joseph Patrick and Tim Woodall.

Svolværgeita: Jumping the Goat's Horns

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:54:00 +0000

If the first words that just came in to your head were never in a million years, then you are probably in good company. The Svolværgeita mountain in Norway was first climbed just a little over a century ago in 1910. Yet since then a tradition has emerged among the mountaineering fraternity: those who reach the goat’s horns jump them. Because they can.

Image Credit Flickr User Sonia Marotti

The town of Svolvær in Norland County nestles below the mountain. It is situated in Lofoten (which we have visited before on Kuriositas) on the south coast of Austvågøy, and faces open sea to the south with the mountain directly to the north. It is easy to see where the goats horns got their name. There are two spiky rocks which only the most experienced rock climbers can (safely) reach.

The National Library of Norway

Image Credit Flickr User QuiteAdept

The first picture above is from the early 1900s when the mountain was first conquered, followed by a photograph of how the same scene looks today. You can just about make out the goat’s horns on the left side of the mountain, about two thirds of the way up. From down below it looks tiny.

Image Credit Flickr User Malabar

Yet when you get close up like this your realize the enormity of the goat's horns.

Image Credit Flickr User Geoff Rossi

You could easily argue (and many would agree) that the heights of Svolværgeita should be considered strictly for the birds. Even the local sea birds seem content just to look up at the mountain. Yet when you get up there, it offers quite the view…

Image Credit Flickr User Gauteh

Imgur

Image Credit Flickr User Henrikj

Image Credit NFK

First Image Credit Flickr User Cascade Hiker

Future.Inc

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:43:00 +0000

Steven Moffat, the executive producer of Doctor Who called Future.Inc "Terrific. Really clever and really sad". And it is.

Set just a few years from now, this short film turns our present ideas around social media on its head. Whereas today we join Facebook and the like and make contact with friends of yesteryear, Future.Inc suggests the opposite. What if, instead of making contact with friends from the past we can, instead, establish a connection with those from the far future?

Written by Andrew Ellard and directed by Martin Stirling (whose website describes him as director / writer / douchebag!), Future Inc features Hils Barker as the hapless Rose, the awkward office worker who gains a new lease of life thanks to the new social network. Be warned, though, you may need a hanky if you are of a lachrymose nature. Unsurprisingly, Future.Inc won the Sci-Fi London 48 hour film challenge last year.

Eurovision Presenter Petra Mede Steals the 2013 Contest with Comedy Show Song – Swedish Smorgasbord

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:24:00 +0000

If you are not European then this video presents you with an opportunity to take a glimpse in to the rather silly heart of a continent… thanks to Swedish Smorgasbord, comedienne Petra Mede and of course the Eurovision Song Contest..

When Ireland astonished a slack-jawed Europe with Riverdance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest it set the bar with its amazing but nevertheless somewhat po-faced interval act showing Irish history and folklore. Since then each host country has done its very best to promote itself through the medium of song and dance. It has become, if you like, something of a competition within a competition.

This year it was Sweden’s turn to host the show which this year (its 58th) brought together 39 countries to compete for the coveted title. As that makes for too long a show there were several semi-finals before last night’s grand finale, in which 26 countries participated.

While the votes from the participating countries were being made by the tens of millions who tune in each year, the host country Sweden had the difficult job of keeping a large part of yesterday evening’s global TV audience entertained.

This is the ideal opportunity for any country to set about a little self-aggrandisement. Not so the Swedes. Eurovision’s host, 43 year old Petra Mede (who is a very successful comedian in Sweden essentially the country’s Bette Midler), dazzling in her Jean-Paul Gaultier dresses, went down another route entirely. With an ensemble which would put many a West End show to shame she took great joy in presenting her country’s achievements to the world while – ever so gently – mocking Sweden and its inhabitants.

Decked out in Sweden’s colors – yellow and blue – Mede catalogued brands and bands, actors and acts: Ikea, Volvo, Bjorn Borg and Grete Garbo are all name-checked as well as many others. There was also a certain amount of poking fun at some Swedish national characteristics such as being drawn to queue, regardless of what the queue is for.

Altogether, this was an outstanding and very funny performance from Petre Mede.This. Is. EUROPE!

Baby Boom

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:47:00 +0000

This goes out to each and every parent reading this.

Although you may not have quite the same problems as the rats in this animated short, you probably have a good idea how they feel – generally overrun!

The inspiration came from the self-taught artist Ptiluc who has been drawing rats for decades.

Dreams Come True

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:34:00 +0000

Do you really think Man is the only one capable of dreaming? I know it isn´t so…

This is quite extraordinary. Combining time-lapse and HDR techniques, Dreams Come True is a visual poem voiced by a city. A what? You may well ask, but the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands delivers a message to the rest of Europe. She is ancient but still thrives, she looks back but forever walks forward – and she wants something.

The something in question is the position of European Capital of Culture 2016. For those of you outside the continent that when a city is designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year throughout which it organizes a succession of cool cultural happenings with a strong European element. It is quite the coveted title: previous winners such as Liverpool in the UK have seen their city’s cultural life reinvigorated and strengthened.

The Dreams Come True was imagined, produced and directed by Damián Perea Lezcano. I can only say that with this innovative and truly imaginative approach to applying for the title, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria gets my vote!

The Lonesomeness of Mazinger Z

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:58:00 +0000

When Professor Juzo Kabuto built the super robot Mazinger Z he envisioned a world protected from the forces of Dr Hell and his mechanical beasts by this, his ultimate invention. Made from Japanium (found only on the slopes of Mount Fuji) Mazinger B’s sheer size and power would defend humanity against evil for generations. He never imagined that his gargantuan brainchild would end its days in an unfinished suburb of a quiet Spanish town, rooted to the spot and silently, gently decaying.

Image Credit Flickr User Bioowloot

Yet that is just what happened. Returning to the real world (for however short a time), just how did this mountainous monument to Manga finish up in Tarragona, a Spanish city better known for its Roman ruins than robot remnants?

Image Credit Flickr User La Tete Krancien

Mazinger Z’s fate is bound up in the peaks and troughs of the Spanish building industry. When the eponymous manga TV series was first broadcast in Spain in the 1970s it was an instant hit. A decade later Tarragona’s planners decided to build a new suburb. Although the development was never finished the architect (and self-evidently a huge mecha fan) ensured that its guardian was one of the first elements in place at the site.

Image Credit Flickr User Alos

When the project failed and the builders moved on, Mazinger Z was left alone, without role or mission. He has been there ever since, perhaps waiting for the moment when he is recalled to life by any who know how to control his awesome super robot powers. It would take a genius…

Image Credit Flickr User elprimerpaso

Image Credit Flickr User La Tete Krancien
A close inspection reveals that Mazinger Z may not be made from Japanium: rather his frame was molded from the slightly more available polymer known as fiberglass. Yet he stands a lofty ten meters high, arms outstretched to shield his adopted Spanish homeland from any enemies that might dare to attack it. He has weathered the years surprisingly well; intact if perhaps a little grubby.

Image Credit Flickr User La Tete Krancien

Image Credit Flickr User elprimerpaso

Perhaps a rescue attempt could be made to liberate lonesome Mazinger Z from his Iberian ignominy...

Returning, to the world of fiction, could a certain Doctor Sheldon Cooper and his compadres imaginably make a daring Spanish raid and return the giant to life with a few well-placed squirts of oil and a little Wolowitz re-engineering?

Image Credit Flickr User jauldeardilla

Image Credit Flickr User elprimerpaso
Who can say? However, maybe the sleeping leviathan would prefer to remain where he. The rescue attempt would end with the four American scientists languishing in Tarragona’s jail: a bazinga from Mazinger.

Image Credit Flickr User La Tete Krancien
Apologies: I really needed to put that last sentence in, really, really. Once again, apologies.

First Image Credit Flickr User Nightwing80

Does the British Government Really Care?

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:13:00 +0000

In my real world life I teach teenagers at a college in South East London. I mostly deliver a range of IT subjects and a recent addition to the curriculum has been designing and running a blog. My group this year created 2wenty4se7en.com as a two month project and it has been (at least in my mind!) successful: it has generated income, and enabled my students to learn more about blogging from a personal and business perspective. Another benefit has been that it has encouraged the students to look closely at their literacy skills and work towards producing good copy.

So, take a look at the latest post by one of my students, Louis Christodoulou (pictured left) by clicking on any of pictures or the link below. Like many in the UK the recession has hit his family hard and he has not escaped its ravages either, finding it impossible to get even a part time job. You may agree wholeheartedly with his sentiments or you may disagree entirely – it will all depend on your politics. Yet I am very proud of his feature on Does the British Government Really Care?

This isn’t a two minute talking hoodied head on the TV, it’s not a sound bite gathered quickly by an anxious journalist in the darkest depths of South East London. This is the real deal. This is a British youth beginning to find his voice, one which speaks for his generation through online journalism (which you would probably agree is better than a brick through a window). As such it is both a plea and a warning.

If you are reading this and you are an employer in London and you want to give a hard-working and diligent young man a start in life by offering him a meaningful job (or an interview!), then drop me a line!

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:37:00 +0000

Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? If not, this animation may well form a visual and literal mnemonic to aid your memory. After all, you never know when you are going to asked to name them. We have them all here, each presented in a different and individual style.

It is the work of a group of students from Supinfocom Arles (in France) who rather than work collectively on the piece have created a chain animation – a form which is enjoying its moment in the sun at the moment. Small groups of three or four students worked together on each individual wonder and then the seven resulting clips were sewn together to make this fantastic animated montage.

In case some of these have left you scratching your head they are, in order presented here: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.

My Face is in Space

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:24:00 +0000

When NASA launched Voyager in 1977 on board was a gold record. The record held information about our history and our achievements, our location and our DNA. It also included photos – lots of them. One of them was a photo of Larry, a young American teenager whose life was changed irrevocably by the inclusion of his image on board Voyager.

Yet, to paraphrase Bentham, stretching up to touch the stars, young Larry forgets the flowers at his feet.

My Face is in Space was created by London based animator, writer and director Tom Jobbins.

Sincerity

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:33:00 +0000

Lunch is over and David finally has to tell his parents the secret that he has been keeping to himself. It is something that he feels he has to tell them even though the news will have a profound impact on the family. Yet it is something that he has to do: he simply cannot live a lie any longer.

If you think you know what this (very) short Spanish comedy is all about from the paragraph above, then perhaps you should reconsider – and press the play button! This little gem was directed by Andrea Casaseca Ferrer and stars the fabulous Kiti Manver as Mom, Javier Laorden as Dad and Gerald B Filmore as the son with the terrible secret.

Barbie’s Berlin Brouhaha

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:59:00 +0000

My school boy reading of the banners carried by the protestors above translates them as Barbie take off (perhaps they mean get lost) and Hermione Granger did not play with Barbie. True, true – one cannot imagine the Hogwart’s pupil swapping accessories and outfits with her friends even stretching the imagination to the upmost. Not in any shape or form. Yet, surely, haven’t these Berliners had since 1959 to get used to the doll’s somewhat inane take on femininity and, indeed, the female form? What’s got their goat? The answer is this...

Image Credit Flickr User nerxs

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. At almost 27,000 square feet, the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience, which opened yesterday in Berlin attracted acerbic (not to mention noisy) protests from Women’s Rights groups such as Femen. Even if you are ambivalent about Barbie’s use as a plaything for girls, you can see their point. One can only ponder what horrors of a fuchsia, salmon, or rose hue lie within.

Image Credit Flickr User bildungkatastrophe

Myself, this has made me wonder why these demonstrators were not joined by architecture aficionados who must surely see this monstrosity in pink as the affront to creative planning, design and construction it truly is. Shudder.

First Image Credit Flickr User Libertinus

Villa Epecuén: Argentina’s Pompeii Revealed

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:19:00 +0000

Once, people would flock to the small town of Villa Epecuén in Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province to take advantage of the saline, healing waters of its lake. Decades of tourism was wiped away in November 1985. The rains were unusually heavy and the lake burst its banks. The entire town of more than 100 blocks disappeared under ten meters of water.

Image Credit Flickr User Pablo Curras

Image Credit Flickr User OpenMinder

It was, to say the least, unexpected. The unusual weather patterns caused the waters of the lake to form a seiche, otherwise known as a standing wave. The wave shattered the nearby dam and directly afterwards the dyke which protected the town fell. The town was doomed.

Image Credit Flickr User openminder

Image Credit Flickr User roadaluca

The town's old slaughterhouse is still a formidable looking structure. You can see why Epecuén is often called Argentina’s Pompeii even though that is something of a misnomer. Yet it remained submerged for 25 years. Only in the last two years have the waters receded allowing the town to emerge from the depths. Now, people can walk through the streets of the town once again.

Image Credit Flickr User OpenMinder

Image Credit Flickr User JoseCarizzo

Image Credit Flickr User drPabloGonzalez
As the waters have receded they have left behind a residue of salt, caked in its crystal form to every surface. It gives the town an ethereal, otherworldly look. Roots of trees long dead seem to writhe in to the earth. It is an apocalyptic scene.

Image Credit Flickr User OpenMinder

Image Credit Flickr User Fede Salvo
Before the cataclysm, Villa Epecuén was a thriving tourist destination, attracting visitors from Argentina and abroad. Its waters, ten times saltier than the sea, attracted tens of thousands of visitors each year. It was particularly popular with Buenos Aires’ Jewish community, which wistfully substituted the South American lake for the Dead Sea.

Image Credit Flickr User Fede Salvo

Image Credit Flicr User JoseCarizzo
The population of over 1500 were forced to relocate and leave their precious town behind them. Even though they could never have envisioned that Villa Epecuén would reappear they have not exactly returned in their droves. In fact the town boasts a single resident, octogenarian Pablo Novak (pictured above). He had spent his youth, fallen in love and started a family in Villa Epecuén. If it is a sense of romantic nostalgia which has drawn him back then one can only wish him good fortune.

Image Credit Flickr User OpenMinder

Image Credit Flickr User FedeSalvo
The tourists are now returning. Old Don Novak greets them and often accompanies them around the ruins. Villa Epecuén may be compared to Pompeii but that’s one thing you can never get there: an eye witness account from a survivor.

Image Credit Flickr User JoseCarizzo
First Image Credit

The Body Snatchers: Corpse and Effect

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:37:00 +0000

You probably know about the period of British history when medical students were in need of bodies to dissect which gave rise to the rash of macabre thefts known as body snatching. Perhaps the most famous pair were the notorious were Burke and Hare who ironically did not raid cemeteries but murdered people to provide a local doctor with corpses to dismember. Fortunately the Anatomy Act of 1832 stopped the ghastly business of stealing cadavers from their graces and allowed for the bodies of the recently deceased unclaimed poor to go under the knife of curious students of human composition.

Yet have you ever wondered where the bodies went after the dissections were over? Fortunately we have Dr Piers Mitchell of Cambridge University (in the video above) to answer that for us. No need to watch this if you are squeamish but if you are interested in pursuing this then Dr Mitchell and colleagues have published Anatomical Dissection in Enlightenment England and Beyond: autopsy, pathology and display (2012) which is available on a number of websites including one which we won’t mention until they start paying more than 0.1% tax in the UK.

Obsolete

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:45:00 +0000

A robot works on a production line – and discovers a sense of curiosity. That is, plotwise, just about it but watch Obsolete because the colors are simply stunning, evoking a world boiling in heat. No clues are given as to what caused this environment yet one suspects human hand even if not a single homo sapiens appears. Yet despite our absence, Obsolete is brimming with pathos.

Obsolete was created by Smoking Robot, aka Lewis Gray and Esra Guldal, two students studying MDes Graphic Design at Sheffield Hallam University, specialising in motion and video.

If F Scott Fitzgerald was One of America’s Greatest Novelists, Why is he Buried Here?

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:27:00 +0000

Office buildings and apartment blocks surround the Catholic cemetery in Rockville, Maryland. Among those interred here is a man whose novels are still read and adored by millions. Yet you might miss the name on this unremarkable grave, were it not for the occasional bottles and coins that are placed there by visitors. These additions are the only thing that would otherwise draw the eye to the inconspicuous gravestone of F Scott Fitzgerald.

Image Credit Flickr User morganglines

Dorothy Parker visited the funeral home where Fitzgerald was taken after his fatal heart attack at the age of 44. Lifting a line directly from Gatsby, Parker intoned the poor son-of-a-bitch. She was literally correct - when he died Fitzgerald was getting by on very little money. Yet perhaps she was also thinking of where he was about to end up. As interest in the novelist is elevated with the release of the Baz Lurhmann version of the greatest of his four finished novels, The Great Gatsby, it is perhaps time to ponder why he isn’t buried in a place a little more auspicious.

Image Credit Mr T in DC

It isn’t as if Rockville had any special resonance for the writer. His father’s family had come from the town but he had never visited it. What is more, the archdiocese ruled that as a lapsed catholic he could not be buried with his kin. Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda, died in 1948 and was buried with him. His daughter had to fight for years to have their coffins moved from their original resting place, in the Rockville Union Cemetery down the road. It was not until 1975 that passage to the catholic cemetery was finally permitted.

Image Credit Flickr User Piedmont Fossil

When he died in 1940 Fitzgerald regarded himself as an utter failure. His funeral was attended by around thirty people in a demoralizing re-enactment of Gatsby’s own under attended service. His tomb is not venerated as perhaps one of America’s greatest writers should be – days can go by without a visitor. Yet those who come often leave the two things he needed the most before he died – money and alcohol.

Image Credit Flickr User live lough laugh beautiful

Perhaps America should have remembered his words from The Great Gatsby: Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead. It is too late for that now, but amends could be made. Just as the ashes of Marie Curie were taken in 1995 from her rather anonymous resting place to the Pantheon in Paris, perhaps it is time that F Scott Fitzgerald made a final, final journey.

First Image Credit Flickr User morganglines

The Flying Monkeys of Burlington

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:37:00 +0000

Even though Burlington is the largest city in the US state of Vermont, its population numbers just over 40,000 souls. Yet every place needs its guardians and protectors and Burlington has its very own to defend and preserve the population. The fact that they are winged monkeys conceivably raises few eyebrows in the town: for visitors these primates with plumage are a source of surprise and delight.

Image Credit Flickr User Monekeyswithwings

Image Credit Flickr User monkeyswithwings

Although no one is one hundred percent sure where Burlington acquired its name, the city has a history dating back to 1763 when a land grant was given to one Samuel Willis and 63 others. Although the winged monkeys are a more recent addition their essentially gargoyle form lends itself well to the town’s European roots.

Image Credit Flickr User monkeyswithwings

Image Credit Flickr User origamidon

The first monkey appeared in 1976 as a commission for a local waterbed store and a second followed soon after. They were created by Steve Larrabee a local sculptor and cabinetmaker who died in 2011. For reasons unknown the waterbed supplier to the denizens of Burlington was called The Emerald City. The monkeys would augment this Wizard of Oz theme. However, the store eventually changed hands and the monkeys went in to an imposed exile after around ten years on display.

Image Credit Flickr User mokeyswithwings

Image Credit Flickr User origamidon

After a four year hiatus the monkeys returned when the store relocated to the southern edge of the city. Yet in 1992 the original winged monkey was stolen. A replacement was ordered. However, after a year the kidnappers were caught and the original flying monkey was returned. The new monkey, a copper beauty in blue, captured in the throes of a guttural shriek, joined the original two – a family was taking shape.

Image Credit Flickr User origamidon
Yet they were to be split up again. In 1996 the first two were moved to the Clock Tower on Burlington’s Main Street Landing and copper blue was placed in a patch of land at the north end of the city. Years were to pass before the monkeys moved again.

Image Credit Flickr User origamidon
In 2005 Burlington residents awoke to the news that the original pair had (obviously) been having some fun in a Night at the Museum kind of way and that their nocturnal activities, unwatched by human eye, had resulted in the birth of twins.

Image Credit Flickr User Chris and/or Kevin

Image Credit Flickr User Dancentury
Nothing enhances and increases a community like the pitter patter of tiny paws and it wasn’t long before copper blue arrived atop the theater. With love well and truly in the air she didn’t fail to attract a mate, like her a vision in blue copper. He descended on to the cupula of the theater, no doubt impressing her with his simian acrobatics in the process.

Image Credit Flickr User thecozyshack

Image Credit Flickr User dancentury
And, so, then there were six. In an on-off tradition covering the best part of forty years Burlington has attracted six anthropoid inhabitants to its rooftops. They have become one of the town’s institutions although no doubt some still shrug their shoulders as to the reason why. Yet in many traditions, after all, the why is something of an irrelevance. Who can say how long it will be before the blue monkeys present their own new arrivals to the town?

Image Credit Flickr User origamidon
One can only wonder just how many winged monkeys visitors to Burlington will encounter in 2050.

First Image Credit Flickr User origamidon

The Glitched King

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sun, 12 May 2013 10:35:00 +0000

I love this time of year! So many talented students are finishing off their animated movies for their university courses that there is a veritable flood of wonderful work from which to choose. This is another example of just what today’s students are getting up to while we imagine they are sleeping in, skipping lectures and drinking several gallons of alcohol a week!

A stranded astronaut finds that he has company on the planet upon which he has crashed. Yet that may be just the beginning of his problems.

Made mostly in Maya, with a dash of After Effects, Flash, and ProTools this is the third year film for Michael Piazza, a student at CalArts.

Moon Goddess

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:04:00 +0000

Ladies, you have probably met someone like him: the hopeless lecher who just won’t give up, the one who thinks he's perfect and just assumes you will fancy the pants off him, the one who keeps winking and sniggering and rubbing his... OK, that's enough.

Thank goodness for you if you haven't met this type but the moon goddess featured in this animated short by Melanie Atwater certainly has – in fact, he is there, skulking about in the bushes each evening when she descends from the moon for her nightly bathe. So, what's a goddess do?

Yes – turn him in to a stag (I think this particular moon goddess is based on Artemis who did that sort of thing all the time). However, not even that works, but the goddess has one or two more tricks up her sleeve…

Melanie created Moon Goddess as her third year film at CalArts.

Encounter

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:20:00 +0000

Independent animator Eoin Duffy has a message for you – be nice to mythical creatures! Besides that, I am not quite sure what to say about this very clever, paired back animation except perhaps you should watch it and make of it what you will. I thoroughly enjoyed it but have to admit to not quite getting all of it, even after three viewings. Opaque is cool.

Here at Kuriositas Towers we are looking forward greatly to the release of Duffy’s co-venture with the Irish Film Board. Narrated by the indomitable George Takei, The Missing Scarf tells the story of Albert the Squirrel and a certain missing item of apparel (the clue is in the title, I think).

Tulips: Not Only from Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Sat, 11 May 2013 12:02:00 +0000

When it's Spring again I'll bring again Tulips from Amsterdam – so goes the old song. Tulips and the Netherlands seem to be forever inextricably bound, yet neither the plant or its cultivation originated there. It’s native range encompasses Turkey, Israel, Palestine, North Africa, and Iran all the way to the Northwest of China. Today, however, the flower is a truly global species and each spring the fields of numerous countries explode in a riot of colors.

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So, sit back and take in the glorious sight of tulips: from single flowers to meadows seemingly overflowing with them, the tulip is, quite simply, a thing of exquisite beauty. Fill your heart with spring!

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The Sugar Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (RJ Evans) — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:15:00 +0000

Do you have children who do not brush their teeth properly before they go to bed – or, indeed, are you one of those objectionable and obnoxious offspring who refuse to take dental care seriously? If so, then you might want to spend a few minutes in the company of The Sugar Bugs – the millions of little creatures which live inside your mouth – watch and weep!

Joking aside, this animated short by John Kim is very funny – it tells a fairly straightforward tale which young kids will understand but is done with great panache and a few not so hidden movie references that adults will enjoy too. Created for his BFA2 film at Cal Arts, Kim has created a monster here…!

The voices are created by his peers in the animation department at CalArts and I feel they should quite rightly now consider drama as a secondary subject. If Kim's style seems familiar perhaps it is because you remember his previous animated outing, You've Been Mimed, which we featured on Kuriositas last year.